Scott Walker’s $30,000 dye job

The lake that’s home to the long-running Tommy Bartlett ski show has gone from pea green to a more aesthetically-pleasing color.

Five-hundred gallons of dye bought with nearly $30,000 in taxpayers’ money has turned the 267-acre Lake Delton to a tranquil, tourist-attracting aqua-blue.

Apparently in Scott Walker’s Wisconsin there’s simply no money to spend to fund our university and technical college systems, but apparently there’s plenty of money to spend on giving lakes a dye job to change their color to make them more aesthetically pleasing.

13 comments to Scott Walker’s $30,000 dye job

This is dumb, picky stuff. If Blogging Blue cannot come up with better reasons to respond to and read their articles, I am gonna beg off.
30,000 bucks does not do much for anyone, anywhere, and we all know it. If this were a Democratic pol behind it, the spin would be neutral or positive, and would be just as inconsequential.
Gov. Walker has so many wonderfully negative features to his administration that must be of more consequence than this. Dutiful progressive bloggers ought to be able to find them like fish in a barrel. Just keep looking for the bigger fish. Otherwise, Repubs will rightly accuse you/us with being kinda petty. And these elections we face are anything but petty.
MBB

With all due respect, MBB. I shouldn’t consider this a petty example. Rather, I’d see it as pretty instructive. The dye pond is really an excellent metaphor for how Conservatives do things. First, the effort isn’t high priority. Second, rather than actually fixing the problem, the response is nothing more than a band-aid make-over sham effort, not a real solution. It also highlights how low in priority actually maintaining our water systems are to Conservatives, despite an acknowledged need – i.e. the dye job. Let Conservatives wail about pettiness all they please. Their hypocrisies and irresponsible governance must be exposed.

The taxpayers just forked over $30,000 for 2 weeks to 1 months worth of “pleasing blue” coloration. The dye used is questionable for an open body of water, and I can’t imagine any dye that would be appropriate for any natural water system – because it’s you know – a lacustrine ecosystem and all… The dye pond is a perfect example of a solution made out of ignorance and one lacking in prudence.

Actually, I remember people having a product that had a dye, and didn’t pollute the environment so it would block out the light getting to the weeds and algae thus getting rid of the problem and fixing the ecosystem. This might be the case.

Regardless though, I think they should put in regulations for run off like PJ said.

T. Point taken. Though I can’t imagine how light obstruction could enhance the microbial end of the food chain. I should think if $30,000 is to be spent on the lake, it could be spent on a salary per year rather than a temporary fix for a month or less of impact.

What’s classic, JW, is Conservative propagandist retorts like yours that posit something that isn’t there. I don’t believe Scott Walker was mentioned in any of these comments. Try again. Maybe this time try to stay on topic. Have you something intelligent to say about the topic at hand? Or will you pipe in with more ludicrous diversions?

Yes, I did read the post. The critique was not of Scott Walker mitigating events. It was about “Scott Walker’s Wisconsin.” It was about the profoundly negative impact of Conservative governance. It was about priorities or lack thereof. Maintaining our waterways responsibly is a state issue not one confined to a single lake nor should maintaining our waterways be the burden of local governments. Siphoning $30,000 of taxpayer monies into the private sector for, at best, a 30 day fix to a long-term problem is the consequence of state leadership that does not value its environment and waterways. If Scott Walker were a strong, responsible governor our public state systems could be put to use on this issue for Lake Delton. But Walker’s environmental record is abysmal and hazardous. So is his DNR. His priorities have not been the state or its resources. The fish rots from the head down. This post is about Scott Walker’s Wisconsin – the state of the state.

You’d think those ever-vigilant conservative and Republican small-government types would be all over this.

There’s conflict of interest… one of the four village trustees who approved the expenditure is Tom Diehl, the president, general manager and co-owner of Tommy Bartlett, Inc., whose ski show uses the lake.

He doesn’t think his vote on this spending is a conflict of interest. He’s been a rock star of tourism and Dells promotion for many decades under many governors, so of course his association with any Democratic governors should be touted as evidence of his unfaithfulness to the Republican cause.

Is that what government should be, using public funds to promote private business? Because it generates more tax revenue? Algae grows because its food is present. If they’d tried to pass a rule banning the use of fertilizers on lawns around the lake, Republicans would’ve railed about the loss of personal freedom. Or creeping socialism. Or the because three people testified that the lake seemed just fine for most of last year.

If the dye actually suppressed growth or caused more algae to die, then they’d have a “Bradford Beach” style problem.